Greater New Orleans

Outgoing City Parish Planning Department Director Troy Bunch penned a letter to Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden, proposing the planning department be reorganized to fall under the mayor's supervision. The action would require approval from the Metro Council and from voters.
(Diana Samuels, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

“This (proposed) organizational structure provides for more continuity within municipal government among departments,” Bunch said in a letter addressed to Holden, dated Tuesday.

The City Parish Planning Commission, established in 1949 under state law and the metropolitan charter, currently answers to the planning commission, whose members are appointed by the Metro Council.

Bunch proposed the mayor supervise the department as well as appoint its planning director and the majority of the commission members.

Holden’s Chief Administrative Office William Daniel told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune the move would improve the planning department’s efficiency, especially with respect to the Department of Public Works.

“The two entities are very, very closely related,” Daniel said of planning and public works. “It seems to us it would make more sense for them to be undemr one director.”

Bunch said in the letterthat planning departments in New Orleans; Mobile, Ala.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Baltimore, Md.; and other cities fall under the mayor’s office.

The structure helps departments better work together “both on a daily basis and for long-range planning purposes,” Bunch said.

Reorganizing the planning department would require a change in the Plan of Government, Bunch said in the letter. Daniel said amending the Plan of Government would require support from the Metro Council, and then from the voters.

Center for Planning Excellence President and CEO Elizabeth “Boo” Thomas said CPEX has done “a lot of research” on the topic and highly supports the idea.

Moving the planning department under the mayor – on the same level as public works – would open lines of communication, Thomas said.

“The planning commission gets a sign-off on most things from the mayor anyway; (the current structure) just adds a layer of separation, which frankly, I don’t think is a good idea,” she said.

Daniel said the proposal could help reduce the time it takes to get permits and plans approved.

Too, Thomas said with planning working with the mayor’s office, the director would have better access to information that could be useful for planning purposes.

If public works plans to tear up part of a street to fix sewer lines, for example, the planning director can intervene to coordinate timing with development project in the area, to get it all done at once, she said.

“Only the planning department has that kind of information,” she said.

Bunch ended his letter, “To better serve Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, I suggest that you strongly consider initiating this change.”

Daniel said the mayor’s office has had general discussion about the proposed planning restructuring with Bunch and Mayor Pro Tem Chandler Loupe. Thomas said she’s also had loose talks with city leaders about reorganizing the planning department, but she was delighted to learn Wednesday that Bunch sent an official correspondence about the issue prior to his exit as director this week.

"I just think it'd be a great step forward for Baton Rouge," she said.

Timing may be ripe for reorganization in the planning department as the department seeks a new leader, but it's uncertain how it could affect the ongoing search for a candidate. Messages left Wednesday for Metro Council Member Tara Wicker, who serves on the search committee for the new director, were unreturned.

Thomas said amending the Plan of Government might also allow the city to explore the possibility of creating a city manager position, who would oversee the city's operations. Both the creation of a city manager position and placing the planning department under supervision of the mayor's office are considered best practices implemented in model cities across the country.